Hot Rods The Cars that Made America

That documentary, "The Wrecking Crew" was fabulous and everyone should watch it. It tells the story of the making of many of the pop tunes coming out of LA in the late fifties and sixties. Especially eye opening is how most of the arrangements for the Beach Boys were done by session musicians and then the band would have to learn them. Kind of like "Standing in the Shadows of Motown". As far as mussel cars what about clam and oyster cars? LOL

 

As purely a spectator it seemed pretty good. Was it real, Rich?

 

Speed Demons, on again at 9PM Tonite out West- a lot of OT stuff but, getting ready to go racing and racing of any form gets the blood flowing - gives a good look at current El Mirage runs, etc

 

It was better than the mussel car and hot rods part. Though they left out the US cars that ran at the beach and held the LSR off and on. It wasn'r just the Brits. And I thought they spent a little extra time with Ed Shaddel and the NEA car I must have known Ed for 30 years. He is a good guy. But it always seems the same for them. I liked the El Mirage part. Nice to see the Eddies Chop Shop car. It is fast and gorgeous. Would have liked to see the top speed of the meet car get a little air time. The Dalton-Jackson-Fox "Flashpoint" car did go 293. So I will throw in a picture to make up for it.

 

They did.... Somewhat. It's on again in about 40 minutes if any of you missed it....

 

My favorite scene was when DeLorean pulled up in the Wildcat and was told (paraphrasing) "that car has 300 HP, GM will never build it." Uh, the Wildcat had more than 300 HP, and we all know that they did indeed build it.

 

They get very little right,in fact it seem they are only pressing BS forword they hear from some young guy that is very missinformed. The wife ask why I was LOL so much,so I replay some of it for her an point out the screw ups,even she started LOL,she been hanging around me from 1964 to now,so knows most of stuff anyway. Big Joke doc.

 

Speeeedd Daaaeeemmmooonnnnn

 

Not till 6:00pm Motown time...
And then we have 50 years of Hot wheels... for you diecast nutz..

 

I agree with RichFox that this speed episode was better than the muscle car/hot rod episode and that it was woefully incomplete. Like almost everything I now watch on the History channel I turn my brain off and try and enjoy the twaddle fed to us as supposed history. I am hoping that they finally understand that getting history correct is paramount but the reality is that they do not. They would rather have segments by so called celebrities mixed in with extremely poorly researched "history".

I have been researching auto racing during the early period (1903-1929) since the 80s and there is an extremely large amount of land speed material during this era and it is most certainly not restricted to Jenatzy and Campbell. There is a virtual treasure trove of interesting history achieved by Americans and American efforts. Sadly I expect very little of the History channel and the lazy writers disguised as historians. It is difficult to get the story straight but when you put in half hearted efforts what you end up with is what we witness on this network.

They should reconsider the name of their channel. I am sure we could assist them with a new name.

 

In the immortal words of Henry Ford, "History is bunk!", at least in this particular case.

 

try Hot Wheels: 50th Anniversary Special that starts shortly

 

..... In 5 minutes!.....

 

Adding more to the Evangeline story is that her brother was John Lafayette Cote who married Mildred Gray. Apparently Mildred and Evangeline hung out- Mildred may have introduced her to Henry in that Mildred's father was Edward Gray. Who is Edward Gray? Well he was Henry Ford's Chief Engineer at the Highland Park Model T plant. Henry hired Gray under a million dollar contract after buying his first power plant engine for the Model T plant from Gray's Riverside Engine Company in Oil City, PA. Gray then left Riverside (where he was General Manager and part-owner) and came to Highland Park. Gray also designed the next ten power plant engines for Mr. Ford, a 5000 hp gas-only engine and then the next nine being the 6000 hp famous 'Gas-Steam' engines, one of which is in the Ford Museum. My grandfather had worked for Gray at Riverside starting in 1906, as his 'draughtsman' and came to work for him at Highland Park when Gray left Oil City and Riverside Engine, staying on as his draftsman. Evangeline's grandson wrote a book about 'Henry Ford's Secret Life'- how true who knows but Henry sure spoiled the kid!